I do not understand this game... what am I suposed to do? [spoilers welcome]

[Tragic]

I do not get this game... 90% of my play time is aimlessly wandering about with nothing and no idea what to do. I know I can dot he main quest line... but I have found almost nothing else. I randomly talk to people and they say nothing interesting and I feel the only thing to do is walk randomly in a direction to open the map more in the hope there is something interesting there, and so far, there hasn't been.

I just do not understand what I am supposed to do in this game. It feels so directionless. I know some people like the lack of direction, but I think I need at least some in my gaming.

Can you name some cool thing to do. I do not care about spoilers. Just point me to some quests I can actually get and play through.

[AmaiAmai]

Originally posted by Tragic:

I do not get this game... 90% of my play time is aimlessly wandering about with nothing and no idea what to do. I know I can dot he main quest line... but I have found almost nothing else. I randomly talk to people and they say nothing interesting and I feel the only thing to do is walk randomly in a direction to open the map more in the hope there is something interesting there, and so far, there hasn't been.

I just do not understand what I am supposed to do in this game. It feels so directionless. I know some people like the lack of direction, but I think I need at least some in my gaming.

Can you name some cool thing to do. I do not care about spoilers. Just point me to some quests I can actually get and play through.

The best part about this post is complaining about traversal through an open world, that appears to be empty from 2006 where hardware and space limits necessitated the need for this kind of gameplay to happen , yet the same gamer wouldn't dare criticise the empty traversal in a 2025 game like AC: Shadows, KCD2, etc.

You seriously cannot make this up

[Franzosisch]

Rage bait just isn't what it used to be.

[Rojo Akai]

Due north of the Imperial City, just across the waterway, is the Aleswell inn at the top of the hill.
You could go for a walk over there

[Sassy Robot]

Popping out of the sewers as a fresh level one the game instructs you to make for Chorrol. If you take the northern road you will find the Roxey Inn. There is a small quest here. Further west there is Aleswell which has another small quest. Finally this road will curve back south, putting you at a crossroads where you can choose to continue west to Chorrol, or turn east and enter the Imperial City. In the Imperial City there is the arena that you can fight in, and some other questlines you can find by talking to inhabitants. Yes, talking to people, random people, is a part of the game. There are also many shops to explore here.

In Chorrol you can join the Mage's and/or Fighter's Guild, and each guildhall will provide you with activities and advancement. There are also, you guess it, quests given by some townspeople here as well.

In your travels you will happen across many abandoned forts and elven ruins. There are quests that make even these seemingly pointless places worth exploring. Pray at wayshrines in your travels to receive blessings, and in town at chapels, gods whom you've honored on the road will bless you at their respective chapel shrines.

The game is PACKED with things to do, but yes, spending some time talking to locals and accepting that many have nothing but gossip to say is a part of it.

[Cuddle_Rat]

Go to Bravil and check out the nearby island. You'll go mad with fun.

[Vakma]

Guilds, Join the Fighters guild or Mages guild in pretty much any city. Do the arena quests in the Imperial city arena. If you like thieves, steal something and get caught, pay the fine or jail, afterwards you can join the Thieves guild. Kill an innocent (someone who is passive to you generally counts) and you can join the Dark Brotherhood. Talk to inn keeps about rumors will usually give you a hint as to quests in the area.

Doing a bit of the main quest will start opening oblivion gates around the map. Good way to find high quality loot and gain levels, once you have enough you can visit shrines around the world for Daedric quests, they allow you to gain 'powerful' artifacts (mileage may vary on build and preference)

Dungeon delve to sell loot so you can buy houses and furnish them, you can buy a house in every city except Kvatch. If you want to start DLC, talk to the prophet in Anvil or go to the island in the Niben bay (near Bravil) for Shivering Isles (loads of fun, certain recommend, check out the madness and amber armors while your there in the main city, after gates of madness)

Be sure to talk to people about topics that reference something they mention like if they say "Have you seen my sons?' and they have 'Sons' that'll start a quest or if they mention an NPC it can generally be the start of a quest or quest chain.

[Thomas D.]

Besides main quest line you could do the guild quest lines, some of them are good, too. On top of that there are some nice side quests. Plus since Shivering Isle is added, too there is basically a complete questline, too.

But yeah what you describe is what open world means.

You are free to do whatever you want. Thats it.

Btw. the higher your level gets you will have more encounters in the open world.

Also its known to be a "walking simulator" for a reason 😁

[Goranius]

Originally posted by Tragic:

I do not get this game... 90% of my play time is aimlessly wandering about with nothing and no idea what to do. I know I can dot he main quest line... but I have found almost nothing else. I randomly talk to people and they say nothing interesting and I feel the only thing to do is walk randomly in a direction to open the map more in the hope there is something interesting there, and so far, there hasn't been.

I just do not understand what I am supposed to do in this game. It feels so directionless. I know some people like the lack of direction, but I think I need at least some in my gaming.

Can you name some cool thing to do. I do not care about spoilers. Just point me to some quests I can actually get and play through.

It's really a bit different experience than skyrim. If we talk about quests in oblivion you feel yourself more like city detective than an adventurer. Basically speaking with random people, traders, guards and listening rumors might lead to a quest. For example speaking with alchemy trader in market district of imperial city will lead you to a quest with trader who lower prices. Speaking with couple of npc within temple district will lead you to quest with corrupted guard captain. Sleeping within ship-tavern in waterfront will lead to quest where ship was kidnapped while you were sleeping inside.

[Tragic]

Originally posted by Rojo Akai:

Due north of the Imperial City, just across the waterway, is the Aleswell inn at the top of the hill.
You could go for a walk over there :ghlol:

this is actually one of the few quests I have found myself. Anything more like this?

Originally posted by Sassy Robot:

Popping out of the sewers as a fresh level one the game instructs you to make for Chorrol. If you take the northern road you will find the Roxey Inn. There is a small quest here. Further west there is Aleswell which has another small quest. Finally this road will curve back south, putting you at a crossroads where you can choose to continue west to Chorrol, or turn east and enter the Imperial City. In the Imperial City there is the arena that you can fight in, and some other questlines you can find by talking to inhabitants. Yes, talking to people, random people, is a part of the game. There are also many shops to explore here.

In Chorrol you can join the Mage's and/or Fighter's Guild, and each guildhall will provide you with activities and advancement. There are also, you guess it, quests given by some townspeople here as well.

In your travels you will happen across many abandoned forts and elven ruins. There are quests that make even these seemingly pointless places worth exploring. Pray at wayshrines in your travels to receive blessings, and in town at chapels, gods whom you've honored on the road will bless you at their respective chapel shrines.

The game is PACKED with things to do, but yes, spending some time talking to locals and accepting that many have nothing but gossip to say is a part of it.

cool.. thanks.

[Tragic]

Originally posted by Vakma:

Guilds, Join the Fighters guild or Mages guild in pretty much any city. Do the arena quests in the Imperial city arena. If you like thieves, steal something and get caught, pay the fine or jail, afterwards you can join the Thieves guild. Kill an innocent (someone who is passive to you generally counts) and you can join the Dark Brotherhood. Talk to inn keeps about rumors will usually give you a hint as to quests in the area.

Doing a bit of the main quest will start opening oblivion gates around the map. Good way to find high quality loot and gain levels, once you have enough you can visit shrines around the world for Daedric quests, they allow you to gain 'powerful' artifacts (mileage may vary on build and preference)

Dungeon delve to sell loot so you can buy houses and furnish them, you can buy a house in every city except Kvatch. If you want to start DLC, talk to the prophet in Anvil or go to the island in the Niben bay (near Bravil) for Shivering Isles (loads of fun, certain recommend, check out the madness and amber armors while your there in the main city, after gates of madness)

Be sure to talk to people about topics that reference something they mention like if they say "Have you seen my sons?' and they have 'Sons' that'll start a quest or if they mention an NPC it can generally be the start of a quest or quest chain.

cool... can you only join one guild? Like if you join the mage guild, can you also join the fighters guild? I'm playing a, um I forget the name, kinda like a thief but not.. scout maybe?

[Thomas D.]

Plenty. If you really need pointers: https://en.m.uesp.net/wiki/Oblivion:Quests

Also you can be in all guilds at the same time.

[Tragic]

Originally posted by Thomas D.:

But yeah what you describe is what open world means
Also its known to be a "walking simulator" for a reason 😁

yeah.. I'm not sure these kind of games are my style. "open world" seems to mean, boring world with nothing to do.

I spent over an hour playing today and I literally did nothing but walk around, with no point, gain or gameplay.

I prefer something more on rails I think.

[Vakma]

Originally posted by Tragic:

cool... can you only join one guild? Like if you join the mage guild, can you also join the fighters guild? I'm playing a, um I forget the name, kinda like a thief but not.. scout maybe?

You may join all guilds at the same time.

[Lunarquebus]

Go to any proper town and find a guild, every towns mages guild has it's own quest/chain to do.
Progress through every mages guild hall quest and get invited to join the arcane university in the imperial city for more high stakes wizard questing.
If your not into magic, then the fighters guild has their own questlines too. might not be in every hall but atleast half or so, Anvil has one for sure and i remmeber another centred around leyawiin.

There is also the thieves guild, can't remember exactly how to join them as it's been a very long time but my guess is either steal something and/or go to jail, or an event around the imperial city docks.
Also, Kill any civilian npc then sleep in a bed to join the assasins guild (dark brotherhood)

Oblivion relies a lot on emergent story telling and attempts to tell minor stories through environmental design; there are no big question marks on the map or above NPCs heads to tell you they have a quest.
For example, if you go to the inn inside Anvil, you can buy a house from a guy there, that starts it's own quest chain.
Or talking to merchants in the imperial market will prompt you on a quest to investigate a shady one.

Another good one is the Daedric prince (demon king) shrines all over the place, each one will have a way for you to do a challenge quest for the daedra and gain a prized relic from them. (all have some sort of prerequisite, might be level or skill levels but been a long time so can't remember)

There are quest-like things to discover all over the place too that don't actually trigger a quest event.
E.g a camp in the north mountains that winds up with you fighting a unique troll monster.
Or the fact that there are goblin tribes which fight wars against each other but many people miss it entirely.

I think a lot of older gamers take for granted how little oblivion handholds & signposts things compared to it's peers and successors.
Queue decries of "if you think this is bad then try morrowind" like yea no ♥♥♥♥ investigator vale, but oblivion is still much less *in your face* than the likes of Ubisoft for example.

Also idk if its just me or the ui tweaks, but the compass feels very unobtrusive now, to the point that i straight up forget about it. I guess not being off-white anymore but also maybe with it no longer being near hp bars , i'm not having to look past it all the time.